Examining the culture and politics of the Black Power era of the
late 1960s, this book explores the relationship of soul music to
the Black Power movement from the vantage point of the musicians
and black revolutionaries themselves. The 1960s were a turbulent
time for race relations in the United States, but no other area in
the country epitomized the radical social change that was taking
place more than the San Francisco Bay AreaOCothe epicenter of the
Black Panthers movement. This social history introduces fans of
soul music and 20th-century U.S. history enthusiasts to the Black
Panthers' own band, the Lumpen, a group comprised of rank-and-file
members of the Oakland, CaliforniaOCobased Party. During their
year-long tenure, the Lumpen produced hard-driving rhythm-and-blues
that asserted the revolutionary ideology of the Black Panthers.
Through his rediscovery of the Lumpen, and based on new interviews
with Party and band members, author Rickey Vincent provides an
insiderOCOs account of Black Power politics and soul music
aesthetics in an original narrative that reveals more detail about
the Black Revolution than ever before.